Have to say I envy you Clive, if I could figure out a way to live there I'd be very tempted. If only you weren't in the EU I'd call it nearly perfect.
True enough yogi, but in a practical sense, EU membership hasn't had much effect yet, but I'm sure it will in time.
Britain has resisted full membership, meaning adopting the Euro currency and other aspects which would erode "Sovereignty" control, but Romania has a lot to gain from membership. Despite that, most of the promises that it's committed to are being approached with lethargy.
Anti-corruption in government and local authorities is always in the news, but they only seem to scratch the surface of the real problem. For mere citizens, life goes on much the same.
Access to the mountains is starting to see some restrictions in places, but it's limited so far. Romania is developing slowly, but in 90% of the country, the horse and cart is still the mainstay form of transport in rural areas. They are not allowed on the national roads anymore, so they need to maintain the mountain tracks. For me that's great because the Local authorities make some efforts to keep the tracks operational at a minimum standard. What really pees me off is the quad brigade, when they go on the mountain doing doughnuts and generally doing environmental damage for no reason. The number of motor vehicle ban signs that have appeared since quads became popular is noticeable.
On my trip on Sunday, there were 4 motorcycles doing the same run and they were well behaved, and we met about 10 mountain bikers coming the other way who were really enjoying themselves.
So forget about the effect of the EU in our lifetime (well maybe the next 25-30 years) I don't think it will have real impact for a long time to come.
I'll treat the old girl to a complete makeover.
